McMaster U partners with Verv Technologies

SUDBURY, Ont. – Verv Technologies and McMaster University announced a new collaboration that will further develop Verv’s ground-breaking technology to improve at-home healthcare. A $314,000 investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is allowing the partners to work together to develop a series of blood tests that have the potential to change how individuals manage their own healthcare.

Leyla Soleymani, an engineering physics professor at McMaster University, is leading the McMaster team.

“NSERC’s support further reinforces Verv’s evolving technology, which is becoming recognized, respected and supported by the research community,” Martin Gurbin (pictured), CEO of Verv Technologies, said in a release. “Partnering with Dr. Soleymani and her team at McMaster ensures we have access to the advanced expertise that will drive new aspects of Verv’s offering. The convenience of at-home testing is the future of healthcare as it can help facilitate timely decision-making between users and health care providers.”

The affordable, high-quality blood analyzer Verv is developing for home use can help transform access to timely blood testing for all Canadians, regardless of whether they live in an urban, rural or remote setting. The disposable test chips will be easy to use and aim to measure a wide range of important analytes, such as prostate-specific antigen, vitamin levels, cholesterol, glucose and hormones.

“McMaster University is home to some of the world’s leading developers of diagnostic devices and has strong research infrastructure for building and testing these new diagnostics,” Soleymani, who holds the Canada research chair in miniaturized biomedical devices, added. “The development of this unique technology in Canada, will generate research, development and manufacturing jobs, and will positively contribute to Canada’s medical technology landscape.”

The NSERC funding will see the pre-clinical evaluation of a host of technologies that will allow the McMaster research team to validate and de-risk the technologies, which is a critical step in the commercialization process.

“McMaster’s world-renowned biomaterials and sensor research makes it perfectly positioned to house this infrastructure and take on this important project,” Gurbin noted.